There are no approach pitches whatsoever if you come from the Tioga Rd/Porcupine Flat spot. I don’t know about coming from below. JB/Klemens and my party came from above.

It is a hike downward, actually very pleasant until you are alongside the dome descending the vegetation in the shallow gully, no rock climbing in there. This latter part of the approach is a semi-bitch but doesn’t last too long and it really helps that you are using gravity to thread through the flattened scrub---it all points downwards from the snowpacks. Also, this approach is fairly obvious as you go along and doesn’t have some horrid trick to it.

Another virtue to the route is how it builds from a nice short 5.8 first pitch to 5.9 to 5.10 to 5.11b slowly in the seven leads, #5 being the crux, all while the rock is incredibly good. Some routes are tough right off the ground and thereby seem more stout than they actually might be. And the protection is always good; the kind of fall you would take is always a rather safe one---no horrifying natural features such as guillotine flakes or broken ground. I characterize this route as a very happy kind of harder route, not scary. The crux is very hard but it is also only a short section of less than 10 feet on top of much easier offwidthing that is slowly tapering down. I would characterize the Twilight Zone, for example as very serious and fearsome and this climb as beautiful, encouraging and subtle.

If you actually were unable to do the crux, you can aid a few feet like Donini and Herbert did; it is not mandatory free climbing. I say this because you would not want to hike back up and out from the base to the road----that would be some hours of very unpleasant whacking fighting the scrub that as I say, points downwards vigorously.

Anchors were all natural; when I did the 2nd free on it; there were no bolts and none were needed.